Sour Beers – The New “Next Big Thing”

When you write about the industry as much as we do at American Craft Beer.com, you can’t help but notice trends. And in an industry that’s as vital and as explosive as ours, new styles can emerge and capture the public’s attention seemingly overnight. It’s easy to forget that once upon a time, Imperial IPAs and Stouts weren’t all that common. But craft beer fans found them and embraced them, and the rest is history. Barrel-aged beers were, until just recently, the “next big thing” – now everyone’s doing them.  And that brings us to sour beers, which may already be well on their way to becoming craft beer’s newest “next big thing.”

What is a Sour Beer?

Sours were once the domain of a small community of brewers in Belgium and yes, their overriding quality is that they’re sour.  But they’re also the result of a process that turns traditional brewing techniques on their head. A sterile environment is an important part of traditional brewing. Rouge yeast and bacteria is the enemy in this world and can totally destroy a beer’s taste. Sour beers take just the opposite approach.  Unlike traditional brewing, wild yeast strains or bacteria are deliberately introduced during the beer-making process, resulting in a tart or sour taste as the beer ferments. Brewing Sours can be a wildly unpredictable – and that’s part of their appeal!

Why Sours? Why Now?

We don’t know if there’s one definitive answer to these questions…but let’s start with this – BECAUSE THEY CAN. Craft brewers have been refining their art for decades now and have just grown more experienced. And experience can lead to competence and with competence comes ambition. Brewers have just gotten better at what they do and are now willing to take on techniques they may once have considered too difficult. And then there’s the boredom thing. How many IPAs can you brew before you never want to do another one of them? America’s craft brewers are all about change and innovation, and brewing beers as complex as Sours seems a natural progression.

At the same time, the craft beer fan’s tastes have been evolving and are becoming more experimental and sophisticated. It used to be that consumers wouldn’t stray too far from staples like the IPA…but all that’s changing. And just as craft beer fans are becoming increasingly attracted to new brewing directions and different styles, today’s brewers are becoming more comfortable brewing beers far beyond craft beer’s mainstream. And Sours are definitely that.

The Yoda Factor

As in the arts, sports, and with music, people look to people that they admire for inspiration. It’s no different with brewers. So when industry leaders like Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo or Rob Tod at Allagash started refining the craft of brewing Sours, others took notice. And what started with a few soon caught fire – and now it seems like everyone’s talking Sours.  The Cascade Brewing Barrel House, one of Portland’s most respected craft breweries, started brewing Sours in 2006 and they’ve now grown to command 80% of their overall business!

The New “Next Big Thing?”

So has this ancient Belgian beer style officially “arrived” in the States? Who knows… but it sure feels like that to us. There’s no question that America’s craft beer consumers have sweetened up to sour beers – and that they may already be well on their way to becoming craft beer’s newest “next big thing.”